Genealogy Blogs - Three of My Faves

I'm getting an early jump on Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun this week. Here is this week's challenge:

1) Identify three of your favorite genealogy blogs to nominate for the Family Tree 40 list, and fill out the nomination form for them.

2) Tell us which three you chose, and a reason why you chose it, in a blog post on your own blog, in comments to this post, or in a Note or comments to this post on Facebook.

3) For purposes of this assignment, please don't name Genea-Musings as one of your three (obviously, I would be honored to be nominated, and you can do so at your pleasure). What I'm hoping is that by writing about three of your favorite genealogy blogs, that you will introduce many blog readers to more outstanding blogs, for the benefit of all of us.

Of course I have so many favorite genealogy blogs (most of which I already nominated over at Family Tree Magazine) and while it just doesn't seem fair to pick only three, I've decided to choose three of my faves from a specific area: African-American genealogy.

As part of my goal of becoming a certified professional genealogist I've made a list of topics in which I feel my skills should be improved. I figure if I am offering my services in the area of research, I need to understand the unique set of challenges that come when working with African-American research. While it is nice to specialize in certain geographic and ethnic areas of genealogy, I think I become a better genealogist if I am open to working in different areas as well.

What makes the following genealogy blogs my favorites in this genre are the heart-felt stories written by each blog owner. As someone with strictly European ancestry it is difficult for me to imagine trying to locate ancestors who were in bondage and were traded and sold in the 18th and early 19th centuries. But through the stories in these wonderful blogs I learn more and more about the slave trade and its impact, the role of oral history and the search for records and documentation.

Spence-Lowry Family History: with a focus on North Carolina genealogy, Allum Spence's blog is a wealth of information and resources for the researcher of African-American genealogy. Some of my favorite posts are about Allum's attempts to contact living relatives for information and her search for her grandfather.

Our Georgia Roots: besides feeling a kinship with Luckie Daniels (we are both dealing with an aging parent with Alzheimer's Disease), I just love this woman's writing and her enthusiasm for finding her roots. I check in every day to see if there is news on the search for Catie as well for posts about African-American history and geneaology resources.

Taneya's Genealogy Blog: not only does Taneya Koonce constantly give back to the genealogy community (she is heavily involved with the NC GenWeb sites) she too is an excellent writer and researcher. Taneya's blog offers insights into research of African-American ancestry and she shares some great stories - the latest is about visiting a plantation where her great-grandfather's family were held.

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There are many more fine blogs that focus on African-American genealogy and I encourage you to check out the list over at GeneaBloggers!